Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Houston and I had so much fun making our DIY Cat Food Tray last month and after a few weeks of using it at home, we couldn't be more pleased! - The fur babies seem to like too.

Since the original post didn't go into detail about the construction of the DIY Cat Food Tray, and we received a lot of comments with questions about dimensions and the supply list, we figured we would do a second post and lay it all out in easy to follow steps.

How to Make an Elevated Cat Food Tray:

Supplies:

Wood from the hardware store. We picked up a piece of Birch wood out of the scrap section that was about 2 feet long.
Wood trim to use as a rim on the tray - also from the scrap section.
4 Door Stoppers (exact here, similar here).
Spray Paint (we used this paint we already had at the house).

Friday, December 18, 2015

Last week I told you how to wrap beautiful Christmas presents with some tips and tricks I learned while working at a department store in my 20's. The crisp edges and double sided tape are my secret weapons. The other part I have always loved about department store gift wrap is the bows and ornaments that are included!

Behind the counter, there were buckets and buckets of coordinating ornaments to attach with the ribbon and they were usually covered in glitter, my favorite! I wish Macy's still had a gift wrap department so I could show you, but you'll just have to use your imagination for now.

For example, a birthday package would have balloon wrapping paper, bright purple ribbon, and a birthday cake ornament to tie with the ribbon. Something like this or this. Note to self: do some fun birthday gift wrap ideas; Pinterest is seriously lacking some pins!

Christmas gift wrap included color coordinating ornaments and wired ribbon and that has become my favorite way to decorate my Christmas presents! I pick up some inexpensive (shatterproof) ornaments and attach them with some ribbon to pre-made bows or tie them into my homemade bow.

I can thank my sweet Grandma Jay for teaching me the art of beautifully coordinated gift wrap; she always had a theme for her presents and planned it out well before Thanksgiving. I can only imagine how much fun she would have now, if she were here, with Pinterest-worthy ideas overflowing on the internet.

There was nothing quite like seeing my grandparents walk up to our door on Christmas morning with arms full of presents with matching paper and ribbon.

How to make gift wrap bows:

Grab your favorite wired ribbon, stapler, and some scissors!

Wrap a simple loop around your present and staple the two ends of ribbon together on the underside of the gift. You can make a cross by twisting the ribbon and going the opposite direction on the box, but let's keep it simple this time, shall we?

Take your ribbon and make a single loop.

Repeat going the other way so you have two loops on opposite sides.

Repeat the looping, making sure you have an equal number of loops on each side.

Staple the middle of all the loops and cut off the excess.

Your bow will look flat and kind of sad. Do not fret... it will be full and fluffy in a second!

Place your bow on top of your ribbon that is around your present. Center the bow (or don't, depending on where you want your bow) and slide another piece of ribbon under both of the other parts.

Here is the part that is a trick and almost impossible to photograph. You want to tie the ribbon around the bow, but make sure the knot is facing down.

Say what???

Here is how I do it: I make a loose knot and then rotate the ribbon so the not side is facing down and then pull it tight. Then I can pull the ribbon back down and I have a beautiful knot on the top of my bow. If you want to attach an ornament to this bow, be sure you slide it on BEFORE you tie the knot.

I trim the edges by folding the ribbon in half and cutting on an angle. *** Be careful! If you fold the ribbon the wrong way, you will NOT end up with this edge. Practice on a scrap so you know which way to fold! ***

I can't wait to wrap the rest of our Christmas presents this weekend, watch A Christmas Carole, and drink hot chocolate! Be sure read How to Wrap Beautiful Christmas Presents if you missed it last week and you will be ready to wrap your presents like a professional too.

Be sure to tag your gift wrap photos with #PDBJayCrafts if this tutorial helped you with your gift wrapping we would love to see your pretty Christmas presents!

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and
its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MinionsMovieNight #CollectiveBias

My husband and I loved watching the Minion movie from Illumination Entertainment in theaters
this past summer! We may have been the only adults in the theater without kids,
but we didn't care; we were there to see the minions! There is just something
mesmerizing about those funny yellow characters, their goggles, and their
overalls.

So it seemed only natural while we were at Target picking up
some Christmas presents that we would throw the exclusive Minions Blu-Ray/DVD Metalpak (with
bonus features!) into our cart as well and I immediately started planning our
Minion dinner and a movie date night! My love for Target runs deep and I love that it is my one-stop shop for all my movie night (or any night) needs! If your store is running low on the movie, you can always order online and save 5% with your Target Red Card!

A little background information for those of you who haven't
seen the movie:

For our movie night, Houston and I made some "Bad Guy
Mini Burgers" and some minion fries!

Our Bad Guy Mini Burgers are a slider patty with a cube of
cheese cooked into the center so it "oozes with evil" when you take a
bite!

How to make Bad Guy Mini Burgers:

Grab a pound of lean Market Pantry ground beef while you're at Target
(picking up your Minions Blu-Ray/DVD, of course), some of your favorite cheese
and any other toppings you would like on your burger! I like to keep it simple
with just the patty and Houston likes to add some spinach and tomato to his.

Make small patties from the ground beef, place a cube of
cheese in the middle, and place another patty on top making one big patty
around the cheese. Pinch the corners together to keep the cheese in the middle.

Grill like a normal hamburger and season how you like. We
like a little pepper and garlic on ours.

Once your burger is cooked through, finish making your Bad Guy Mini Burger and
enjoy! We garnished the mini burger with a villain topper inspired by the movie.

We also used our new mandoline to slice some potatoes and a
cookie cutter to make minion fries - Homestyle potatoes cut out with a minion
cookie cutter and fried to golden perfection! YUM!

Houston is such a good sport and goes along with all my
wacky ideas. I am so lucky to have such a fun loving man I can laugh with.
Watching funny movies together is one of my favorite things and the Minion
movie does not disappoint; especially with the 40 minutes of Target Exclusive content.

Bad Guy Mini Burgers

Ingredients:

Market Pantry Lean Ground Beef

Cheese (use your favorite kind; we used Colby-Jack)

Mini Rolls or Buns

Seasoning (we keep it simple with garlic and pepper)

Optional Ingredients:

Tomato

Lettuce

Ketchup

Mustard

Onions

Directions:

Form two small hamburger patties with the ground beef. Try
to make them as thin as possible.

Place a small cube of cheese on top of one patty.

Place the other patty on top of the cheese and pinch the two
patties together, sealing the cheese in the middle.

Sprinkle seasoning on both sides of the patty.

Grill on a stovetop griddle or BBQ until the meat is cooked thoroughly.

Place cooked patty on roll/bun.

Add toppings.

Enjoy your cheese-filled burger!

Minion Fries

Clean and slice a potato into ¼ inch strips.

Imprint with a minion cookie cutter.

Fry in a frying pan with olive oil until golden brown.

Season with salt.

Enjoy!

Our Bad Guy Mini Burgers were the perfect movie snack and were so easy to eat while we watched Minions! What is your favorite movie snack?

Monday, December 7, 2015

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BIGSeason #BigLots #CollectiveBias

When I was 22 and working at Robinsons-May, I made a deal with my friend James. He would learn how to work the Ticketmaster program and I would learn how to gift wrap. Well, I think James got the short end of that stick because Ticketmaster was always busy and it was a complicated system to use but when gift wrap got backlogged, I got to hang out upstairs and I learned how to wrap beautiful Christmas presents!

One of my favorite things about the gift wrap department was the tape dispenser! It was filled with sand and weighted so I could pull the tape with one hand without the whole thing sliding on the counter. It has been on my wish list for years and I think I may just have to buy it for myself for Christmas.

I also loved the way the rolls of paper hung on the wall with a blade to tear the paper - it reminded me of elementary school and the large bolts of butcher paper that were always being used by my teachers.

Anyway, I perfected my gift wrapping skills and now wrapping my Christmas presents is a highlight of the season for me. In fact, I usually save all the unwrapped presents and have one whole afternoon where I drink hot cocoa, turn on a Christmas movie and wrap everything all together.

So how do you wrap like a department store gift wrap department? Let me show you!

Prep work:

First thing you need is some presents and gift wrap supplies! Our Big Lots store is right next to our favorite Mexican restaurant, so we ran in to do some Christmas shopping and pick up my gift wrap materials.

I was so excited when I saw the gift wrap ensemble that included a color scheme of 3 different, but coordinating, wrapping papers and the bows and ribbon to go with them! (Styles and assortment varies by store). Now that's my kind of efficient shopping.

I also picked up some tape, a pack of shatterproof ornaments to help spruce up my gift wrap, and some glittery ribbon - because I can't say "no" to glittery ribbon.

We also found some dinosaur toys for one of my nephews who is totally into dinosaurs right now, a tree topper for the tree in Houston's office, and some puzzles for stocking stuffers - I love being able to find so many great gift ideas in one place!

Ready to wrap:

Make sure you have a clear work space and unroll your gift wrap paper with the pattern facing down.

Measure how much paper you will need by placing the present on the paper and pulling the edges up. Trim from the roll.

Pull one edge of the paper up and over the present and secure with tape.

Pull the other edge of the paper up and over the present, pull so the paper is taught, and crease the edge. Fold the edge under itself and secure to the present with double sided tape (this is where my favorite tape dispenser would come in handy). Using double sided tape is the secret to getting those perfect department store gift wrap edges.

Take the left side of the paper and pull towards the box. Adhere with tape and repeat for the right side. Push the paper flush with the box and crease at the corners. It will usually make a triangle shape.

Determine what the top and bottom of your package will be based on the folded edge you created with the double sided tape.

Pull the bottom edge up towards the box and secure with double sided tape.

Pull the top edge down towards the box and crease the tip of the triangle. Fold under and tape it to itself. Than secure the triangle to the box with double sided tape. This creates another pretty and flush edge of the package.

Adorn your package with bows, ribbon or anything else that fits your wrapping theme! I used some of the bows from the Big Lots gift wrap set and attached a red ornament to two of my packages and made a bow with the red glitter ribbon!

Need to know how to make a department store gift wrap bow? Come back on next week and I will show you how!

I would love to see your beautiful Christmas gift wrap and hear if this tutorial helped you with your wrapping this year. Use #PDBJayCrafts on your social media posts and happy gift wrapping friends!

Monday, November 23, 2015

Fall is here! The leaves are changing, the Pumpkin Spice Lattes are flowing and boots and scarves are starting to make appearances - or at least they are in other parts of the country. Here is sunny Southern California it still in the 70's. But that won't stop me from being festive and celebrating the season of burnt orange and hot chocolate!

This will be the first holiday season where Houston and I get to decorate OUR house, rather than decorating two different homes and I have a list a mile long of things I would like to do. You better believe that I have fall fever and I can't wait to celebrate the upcoming holiday and husband and wife!

First on my list was an easy fall DIY decor project. We don't have a mudroom/formal entryway, so a stone table and a pillar serves as my holiday decoration station.

The first thing I did was clean out my vase. I use it for other projects throughout the year, so I needed to make sure it didn't have anything stuck to the inside of it.

I carefully added the straw to the vase making sure it didn't get packed too tightly inside while also making sure I didn't make a complete mess all over the floor. I think it looks better when the straw looks fluffy in the vase.

Add the leaves/branches/twigs and arrange them to your liking.

Group the candle, frame and mini pumpkins around the vase. Try to add various heights to add visual interest to the display; mini cake stands, books or candle sticks make great bases for the pumpkins.

I love this easy fall DIY decor and especially love that I can put it together in less than 15 minutes. Now that is my kind of decorating!

Tell me your simple decorating tips and where you like to decorate in your home in the comments below!

Friday, November 13, 2015

We had such a wonderful team of photographers and a videographer (we are still waiting on our edited video). Much to my delight, I think they all set personal records for the amount of images they captured throughout our day; "press the shutter button and don't let go" were my directions when they arrived at the hotel in the morning and they did not disappoint!

Brace yourself for a massive photo dump, my friends!

The bridal party got ready in separate rooms at the Kellogg West Conference Center and Hotel on the Cal Poly Pomona campus. It was so nice to be three minutes from our venue (The Kellogg House) and everyone was able to stay the night in the same hotel if they wanted to. Everyone was up early and while the ladies had their makeup and hair done, the men went out for burgers at the Cal Poly brewery.

The hotel was just perfect and started our wedding day off on the right foot. I mean, look at the outdoor photos! That grassy area with the trees in the background are just beautiful!

Monday, November 9, 2015

This shop has been compensated by
Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #InsideOutMovieNight
#CollectiveBias

Christmas came one month early in our house! No, I don't have a tree set up and I haven't started wrapping presents; the Disney and Pixar movieInside Outwas released on Tuesday! Happy dance and heart emojis all around.

We were in the thick of wedding planning when the film came out in theaters and I didn't have a chance to go see it. Sad, I know. I rarely miss a Disney movie in the theaters and I was bummed, especially after hearing such great reviews about the movie.

So, you better believe I made a bee line to Target after work on Tuesday (release day!) to pick up my Inside Out blu-ray/DVD combo with extended special features, of course. This limited edition is only available at Target, so get yourself to my favorite store and pick one up before they are gone (my store only had two of the bonus blu-rays left!) Plus, they are on sale. Winning.

Houston is such a good sport and will watch my Disney movies with me as our date night even when I am sure he would rather be watching James Bond or Deadliest Catch - my man is manly and I like it. I broke out a cozy blanket, some popcorn, colorful candy and we had an Inside Out Movie Night on Wednesday night! I love Disney and I love my man.

I took the opportunity to use the movie as some party inspiration and set up a dessert table for my niece's upcoming birthday - It will be perfect for an Inside Out slumber party and movie night for her and her friends.

The key to an Inside Out themed party is the repetiton of the five character colors from the movie:

Yellow - Joy
Red - Anger
Green - Disgust
Blue - Sadness
Purple - Fear

I started with my milk glass jars and Spritz paper straws (my favorite accessory) in each color. I used different patterns (polka dot, stripe and chevron) to keep things interesting and add a little personality to the spread.

I also recycled some of the wine glasses from our wedding centerpieces (we used them to hold votive candles) and filled them with chocolate candies in the character colors.

I also found some treat sized bags in each color and filled them with popcorn, but when the bags looked a little boring on their own, Houston sprang into action and whipped up some Inside Out-inspired graphics for me to use on the front of the bags. I am one lucky party planner to have my own graphics department!

When I saw the graphics on the bags, I knew I just had to use them as Inside Out-inspired cupcake toppers too! I whipped up a batch of cupcakes in, you guessed it, colorful cupcake wrappers and added sprinkles to each one.

Once I had everything assembled and placed on the table I got to work decorating the wall behind the desserts!

You may remember that I vowed to never make another tissue paper pom pom after I made 100+ for Brittany's wedding in 2013, but I knew that my Inside Out party spread was just screaming for a pom pom garland!

Lucky for me, Target had a huge pack of Spritz tissue paper in all the colors I needed! Hooray for Target being my one-stop shop; and don't even get me started on the One Spot section at the front of the store - my kryptonite!

I didn't want really huge pom poms, so I started by cutting the pack in half with my paper trimmer. I can still use the other colors for smaller gift wrap bags.

I used 5 sheets of tissue for each pom pom, but you can vary the number of sheets based on the size and density you want your pom pom to be. Accordion-fold each color with about one inch folds; I just eyeball this part since accuracy isn't important.

Staple the sheets in the middle for added hold or tie a small piece of string, fishing wire or ribbon around the middle of the pom pom -- you will need this to hang the pom pom once everything is done.

Trim the edges of the tissue paper how you would like your pom pom to look. I personally like a rounded edge on my pom poms, so I trim one corner at a time and then round the edge.

Start fluffing your pom pom from the middle, pulling GENTLY on each piece. Don't go too fast, or the sheets will bunch up in the middle and make it difficult to fluff! Since my garland was going up against the wall I only fluffed my pom pom going one direction. Tears in the tissue happen, but they are easily hidden in a fluffy pom pom.